Nicole Gelinas (e-mail: nicolegeli@hotmail.com) at the NY Post details the franchouilles' morning-after Bush blues:

More than three-quarters of French citizens would have voted for John Kerry, according to international polls. But say this for the French: They accepted their electoral rout quickly and stoically.

The French — from the elites of the political class to the waiters in cafés — understood immediately that they could no longer view their two-year-old split with America as a temporary quarrel with a barely legitimate president. The Le Monde newspaper called Bush's triumph "a conservative revolution." Le Figaro lamented that "this year, the Democrats' resounding defeat cannot be doubted."

But as readers of this blog know, France openly promotes the fairy tale of a fabulous French-led European counterweight to America. Though it is unclear just what attractions such a counterweight will have on offer, there is nothing to suggest kissy-kissy with America.

"We cannot permit ourselves any more excuses, illusions or escape . . . the Europeans must not make anti-Americanism their ideology," Le Monde editorialized. [A little late out of the gate with that adhortation, but appreciated nonetheless.]

* The French will not accept the current global reality: That France, due to Western Europe's economic and military stagnation, cannot greet America as an equal partner on the world stage.

* But they are simply too proud to crawl back to America on America's terms. "We must stop talking about America as a hyperpower [A French neologism of then Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine.]," Le Monde wrote. "America's power is only an echo of Europe's impotence."

* But to admit that is to split Western Europe wide open domestically. As the French astutely observe, Western Europe cannot hope to expand its nominal military power to balance Bush's global "hegemony" without first expanding economically — and paring back social spending.

French President Jacques Chirac wants to expand Western Europe's military power outside of NATO — but Europe simply doesn't have the money. And one thing is as clear to Europeans as Bush's victory: Old Europe is not growing.

The European Union's four-year-old "Lisbon Agenda" to make Europe the most competitive economy in the world has failed abysmally, E.U. officials admitted Wednesday.

And when Bush reforms America's Social Security system during his second term, America will leave France and Germany further behind — because an aging Europe faces the same entitlement-reform challenges that America is finally confronting.

So Bush's second-term mandate for Europe is: Change economically, or admit your political irrelevance.

Europeans loathe the message. But after last Tuesday, they know they are in no position to fight the messenger.

[Emphases added.]

Worth the whole read.